Will Your Coffee Make You Go Blind?

Just a few short months after "the egg panic" - in which we learned that our breakfast might be trying to kill us [1] - there's more bad news about a beloved morning beverage.

A new study suggests that drinking enough coffee can cause vision loss or even blindness.

Published in Investigative Ophthalmology & Visual Science [2] under the incredibly concise title, "The Relation between Caffeine and Coffee Consumption and Exfoliation Glaucoma or Glaucoma Suspect: A Prospective Study in Two Cohorts," the study is the first to examine the link between caffeinated coffee and exfoliation glaucoma in America.

Researchers tested 78,977 women and 41,202 men who were at least 40 years old and found that females with a family history of glaucoma were at a greater risk of facing these kind of health problems:

"A meta-analysis of the two cohorts showed that, compared to abstainers, participants who drank three cups or more of caffeinated coffee daily were at an increased risk of developing exfoliation glaucoma or glaucoma suspect. The researchers did not find associations with consumption of other caffeinated products, such as soda, tea, chocolate or decaffeinated coffee."

Glaucoma, which is usually caused by a buildup of fluid in the eye, is the leading cause of irreversible blindness in the world.